CBS News revamps Web site to attract ads

The changes will include 24-hour video news coverage to bring in younger viewers.

July 13, 2005|By Aimee Picchi, Bloomberg News

CBS News, whose evening broadcast has lost 5 percent of its viewers in the past year, said it is revamping its Web site with 24-hour video news coverage to attract younger viewers and bolster online advertising.

The site will cull reports from the news department's staff and use segments that might not fit on the CBS Evening News, CBS News President Andrew Heyward said Tuesday.

The site is meant to lure a bigger portion of the 45 million people who check news online at work and are 10 to 15 years younger than the typical 60-year-old nightly news viewer, CBS Digital Media President Larry Kramer said.

Users will be able to build their own newscasts with exclusive Web video, material already broadcast on the network and archival material, Kramer said.

CBS, owned by Viacom Inc., is trying to tap into the online ad market, which may rise 15 percent this year, compared with a 2 percent increase for the top TV networks.

"There's no question advertising is what drives us," Kramer said. Web sites "are the only way an advertiser can reach a prime demographic during the day."

CBS wants to sell more video commercials at higher rates, CBSnews.com General Manager Betsy Morgan said. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, has signed a bigger ad contract to air commercials on the site, she said. She would not disclose the value of the contract or the ad rates that CBS News is charging.

The revamped Web site also will include an ombudsman column that examines CBS News coverage and respond to public criticism, Heyward said. The network's audience ratings fell last year after retired anchor Dan Rather ran a report on President George Bush's military service based on documents the network couldn't later verify.

ABC News, the other broadcast network without a cable news operation, has been running the ABC News Now webcast for two years and has aggressively sought agreements to distribute news on cell phones and handheld devices.